


Best Buds

by He_Fell_For_Fiction



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Drug Use, Flashbacks, Sibling Bonding, pot use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27114832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/He_Fell_For_Fiction/pseuds/He_Fell_For_Fiction
Summary: Post Season Two. Vanya struggles with memory. She recalls a memory of Klaus’ adolescent drug use. She sits down to talk to Klaus, but ends up smoking with him and discussing life.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	Best Buds

_ “I want to try it.” _

_ Klaus paused, looking up from the book he was using as a makeshift rolling tray. Vanya stood at his doorway. He got up and pulled her in, shutting the door. _

_ “Well—you’re not good at being discreet,” he said through his teeth. He grabbed the candle he had burning and wafted the scent around everywhere. _

_ He looked at his sister, her long black hair framing her face and her bangs hanging just above her brows. Her expression was mostly flat, but she fidgeted nervously. _

_ Klaus sank back down onto his bed. “You want to try smoking pot? Why? What do you have to get away from?” _

_ Vanya bit her lip. “I don’t know. I just…you seem less concerned with life than everyone else.” _

_ Klaus grinned. He had soft cheeks still, looking like a pure little shit with his hair in a bowl cut, but too curly for it to work. It went off in odd directions and the layers look mussed up. He was greasy and the next day it was likely if he hadn’t done it himself, Grace would strong arm him into a bath at least. _

_ “I see shit the others don’t have to see. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Klaus spoke, pausing to hold up his rolled joint. He kissed its midpoint where the filter met the strong smelling contraband. “I have a date with good feeling. And they’re not into threesomes.” _

It was an odd, abstract memory to Vanya. Her memories felt like that lately. After not having access to them, they just seemed weaker once they came back. She asked about certain memories she wasn’t certain were real or just made to fill in the gaps. Allison bought Vanya a new type writer, Vanya writing memories as they came in. She would come back, read them, bring them to others. Diego was the least welcome to helping her corroborate. He’d tease why didn’t she just read her own book.

She did. She could recall the memories she wrote and thinking about her father brought about its repercussions. If she got sad, one would notice how the house plants randomly wilted like in a cartoon. When she got angry, the old house would groan and shake. That would bring a sibling, usually Five or Allison, running in to talk her down.

Sometimes she considered going back on pills, but there was something where her powers felt intrinsic to her being now. It was like her attractions. Unknowingly suppressed for years but now that she had them, why should she hide them? They had done bad, but they had done good for her. She was able to save her family, Harlan, Sissy…

_ Sissy. _

Vanya stopped and looked at the memory she was writing. The memory where she tried to get Klaus to let her smoke pot with him. Klaus’ escapism began young. Before Ben had even passed away. It was shortly after he spent a night in a mausoleum. There was a shift in him as a person. He went from a bright if not somewhat devious to withdrawn and an outright hellion. He was out of the house before he was even eighteen. He spent the most time away from home.

Vanya finished the memory and looked at it. She held it in her hand and made her way down the hall to Klaus’ room. He had the door open and he sat on his bed. His legs were crossed and resting on them was…a book that he used to roll on.

“Klaus,” Vanya said quietly. He jumped lightly, but was good enough to not knock anything over.

“Jesus, Vanya. You can’t just sneak up on me like that,” he whispered. He looked back down. “You going to say something to me about how drugs are bad like the rest?”

“No. I…actually wanted to talk to you about them,” she said, making her way into his room and closing the door a bit. Not fully, leaving a couple inches.

“Well lucky for you, I’m somewhat of an expert. Did a lot of field research.” He smirked at her before going back to work. She hadn’t seen him so focused, his brow screwed and his mouth shifting. He wet his lips before bringing the white paper up and licking the end. He sealed his paper and would put it in a case. He was working to gradually fill the dinked-up silver cigarette case. She was surprised he still owned something so valuable.

She held the paper out to him shyly.

He sighed. “Another fucking memory, great. You know I’m in so many but I don’t think you liked me until we were adults.” He snatched it from her and read. He looked at himself and his shoulders slump. “I guess people never change, huh?” He threw the papers aside flippantly. “It probably didn’t happen, Vanya. You were the straightest edge dad had. I almost saw you as a little him. Sorry now, as I know that prick was just as bad to you in his own special way, but you wouldn’t ask.”

“I wanted to not be there so much,” Vanya confessed. “I think it did. I just—he made me hate myself so thoroughly. I don’t know if he was just doing a really good acting job or if he did it out of fear that if he didn’t solidify it that I’d somehow know he was lying.”

Klaus put his grinder in his bedside table and took a joint from the case, putting it between his lips and leaning into a candle he had lit until the edge caught. He leaned back and pulled it from his lips, exhaling. “Vanya, listen. I love our chats, but unless you’re going to take a hit, get out of my room.”

He held it out to her between his middle and index finger. His palm saying “GOOD BYE” faced out to her. She took it tentatively and brought it to her mouth. She took a small inhale and held it before letting it out. She had smoked cigarettes with Sissy, she knew what to do. The taste was certainly different. And the way it hit her head after a minute was odd.

He saw her blink quickly and chuckled. “There you go. If you did ask, here we are now. Hope this is making amends for that.” He laid down, taking puff after puff. He passed to her after each two he took.

“I’m the one who has to do that, not you guys,” Vanya sighed as she exhaled her next hit. She started to feel lightheaded and her ribcage felt like it sat two inches higher on her body.

Klaus laughed. “That is such fucking bullshit that I’m almost sad with how wrong you are.” He lit another joint and waved at her. “Finish it. We’ll be here a while.” He sat back up. “Old Reggie was a smart man. Because he had to only do the fraction of damage on you than on us because we fucking helped him. Diego and Allison and even our dear sweet Luther were all so ready to remind you how not special you were. Fuck, me and Ben made a jingle about it. We were bastards. But your inferiority complex is so strong you think you have to apologize for being angry.” He busted back into laughter. “Oh man, I needed to hear a total joke. Everyone here has a stick back up their asses now that we aren’t dripping with the euphoria of not being the only survivors. I had hope for Allison and she is better, but those boys are all fucking helpless.”

“Oh, you’re excluded?” She mocked, feeling rather attacked and childish as he laughed at her.

“I’m not “boys,” Vanya you of all people have to know that gender is just too boring to concern yourself with. You went from angsty teen boy with your hoodies and button ups to a gentle farmhand with your denim and leather shoes. The pretty face and long hair, you’re a beard away from being like your dear sibling here.” He touched his own chest above his heart. “Facial hair, I mean. But you already have a nice jaw so don’t bother.”

“Damn, I forgot how dry you can be. You make Five just seem delightfully no nonsense,” she shot back after a moment of disbelief. She took another hit of her nub of a joint. Klaus made a face and took it from her, putting it out in the Umbrella Academy mug he took for an ashtray and gave her the one his hand.

“Be mean all you want, but I’m an addict sharing my drugs. Means I actually like you.” He laid back down. “What do you want me to say?”

“I think besides Ben, you’re the only person who was afraid of your powers. Allison’s hatred came out of consequences. You actually don’t want to use your powers. It hurts you mentally,” Vanya rambled on, taking a hit and handing it to him. He tapped the tip into the cup and looked up at the ceiling as he drew from it. He only listened. “I guess I just want to see if it’s worth just ignoring. Do you wish you didn’t have your powers?”

Klaus cursed under his breath, rubbing his eyes. He was too baked to deal with this. “I don’t know what I wish I didn’t have. I hate the voices; I hate the visions and the nightmares. I fucking hated being possessed. I hated being followed around by a teenager who thought he knew everything like he always did when he was alive.” He sighed. “I miss the hell out of him. Even when I was tweaked to hell, I was somehow always strong enough to have him there as a voice. We were alone together. Losing him feels wasn’t like that funeral. It wasn’t like the day he died.” He took a long inhale of breath. “It wasn’t like losing Dave in the line of duty. It was like a weird break up. Waking up the next day and all their shit is gone and you’re naïve enough to sweep each room to see that maybe they were just somewhere else. That they never left, until you don’t have anywhere to look. He’s just gone and you truly didn’t get to say goodbye. I said goodbye to him the first time. The next sixteen years were just him and I playing grief chicken.”

“I couldn’t imagine being that young. Dying and all you have is your life in that academy.” She looked down at him. “I think that time with you was what made it easier for him to really go. You gave him life’s adventure. If not directly, he had a front row seat.”

“It was a shitty life to see,” Klaus shot, frowning.

“Our lives aren’t shy with tragedies, and I know you’ve always had your demons, but when it’s with each other, even the end of the world felt livable. It was life with you, and for that I’m sure he’s grateful.”

“He got a front row seat to me. Hm, maybe he was lucky. I have put on weight, but in the right places.” Klaus chuckled and blew smoke up at the ceiling, the fan spinning slowly and sweeping it around them.

Vanya smiled at him when he passed her the joint, it halfway down. “You know when we were kids, I thought you were just bad. I didn’t even realize yet that maybe dad was treating you guys poorly.” She stared at her shoes, biting her lip and getting ready to speak. “I can’t help but wonder if we just became aware, how it would’ve been.”

“We all had our own unique nightmares. They were the same story, but different methods. Why we won’t help each other and never did, Vanya. Why would Luther empathize with someone like me who self-medicated my way until I just fell out of the Academy and on my ass? When he stayed for so long and was so loyal, just to be betrayed anyways and left disfigured? Why would Diego pity someone like you who was ignored and excluded when he was beaten into the ground like a spike so badly, he couldn’t even talk? I know his stutter is anxiety based. Why he’s all macho. It’s all a hard shell to protect that gooey center.”

“Dad benefitted from us feeling alone,” Vanya mused, looking down at him. He gave a thumbs up.

“You’re getting it now.” He stood up and turned on his radio. He put on sunglasses and waltzed around as he smoked. “Oh, my sweet Ivan,” he said affectionately as he pointed at her. “If I could start over and switch places with a sibling, I’d choose you. To be so—gentle but fucking afraid enough to avoid life, so secretly lethal but allowed to be loved.”

“You were loved. You are.”

“You know this family’s odd breed of love is the strongest balm but also the worst consolation prize. We had real love, Vanya. You and me. But it was in the wrong time, we couldn’t keep it. Don’t you think how fucked up that is? Don’t you want her here? Didn’t you want to be a mom?”

“I couldn’t keep them. By letting go, I saved them. And I think you might’ve changed Dave’s life. If he enrolled earlier, maybe he gets somewhere else, maybe he isn’t there on that day.”

“No, no. He’s just…” Klaus flicked his filter into the mug and sighed. “Is it time to shift to drinking? I think it is.”

Vanya stood up and pulled him to her. It wasn’t a hug, almost like she wanted to dance. They swayed, too weak without the other. He put his hand on the back of her neck, keeping her against his shoulder.

Her fingers dug into his back, desperate, touch starved. He didn’t realize how much he needed to be held until she squeezed him a bit tighter.

“How are you feeling, Vanny?” Klaus asked her when they parted.

She paused and looked up at him and then finally said, “I’m starving.” 

Klaus laughed and put an arm around her. “Let’s go get you a burger and some water. Before the cotton mouth sets in.”

He led her downstairs and to the kitchen. Five was wise enough to not ask questions when he saw Vanya’s guilty look and Klaus’ red eyes. At least they made each other happy. 


End file.
